


Confidence

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Juris Imprudence [10]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-28 00:32:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6306685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, Rodney McKay, I Have Confidence (Sound of Music)." Rodney finally makes a move.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confidence

Watching _Drop Dead Diva_ for Team Night was apparently some kind of sick guilty pleasure. Sometimes Sam, Cam, and John would watch _JAG_ as their guilty pleasure. O'Neill and Lorne occasionally put on _Top Gun_. (Rodney suspected that, between them, they had Air Force call signs for everyone, but he'd never figured out what they were. O'Neill's was 'Bat'.) Teyla and Ronon would watch _The Guardian_ with Daniel. Sam and Rodney would occasionally get together for _Bones_ and scream at the TV every time the Jeffersonion Squints misused the GCMS.

Rodney had the perfect movie for him and John. It was one long endless game of Prime/Not Prime, and it was a horror movie to boot, so it was perfect for snuggling close on the couch to stave off surprises and fear. All Rodney had to do was work up the nerve to ask John to watch said movie with him.

He had confidence. He was a lawyer and a brilliant scientist. He was good-looking, and no one he’d dated had ever complained about his skills in the bedroom. (They’d complained about plenty of other aspects of his relationship skills, but never that.) As far as Rodney knew, he was a pretty fine catch.

The only wrinkle in the plan was that he didn't know if John swung his way. From the office gossip, Rodney knew John had been married to a woman once, but they'd divorced over five years ago. Rodney could ask Lorne for insider information, because Lorne would have a complete record of everyone John had ever dated since he'd joined the firm (if not before), but there were some lines Rodney couldn't cross (and he didn't want to find out if Lorne actually had that information about John, because then he probably had that information about Rodney, and why did the firm need Teal'c and Vala at all?).

The thing about John was that he was a little...physically stand-offish. With men and women alike. The man had a personal space bubble a mile wide. But he did bring Rodney snacks on the regular, like Lorne had done at first. And that was definitely something outside of a lawyer's duties in the firm. Only sometimes John would bring snacks to the other senior associates as well, so Rodney wasn't special in that department, even though he wished he was.

"For heaven's sake, Mer," Jeannie said when Rodney relayed all this to her on the phone, "stop being such a pansy and _ask_ him already."

"To watch the movie with me?"

"Out on a date. You have to be clear that it's a date you want, because ambiguity leads to disparate expectations, and then both of you will be hurt," Jeannie said, because she was more mom than math major these days. She'd always been better at feelings than Rodney anyway.

"Okay," Rodney said. "I'll be clear."

"Good. Now I have to go. Dinner's boiling over." And the call went dead.

Rodney sighed and set down his cell phone. Fine. He'd do this. He'd ask John out on a date.

The next morning he was all set to do just that. John was a ridiculously early riser, and he and Lorne tended to be the first ones in the office every morning, there by seven thirty. If Rodney got in just as early, he could do the asking with a minimal audience, and if it went sideways – if it went sideways Lorne would know, but he could be discreet when he needed to. It was part of the job.

Rodney made it into the office at seven-forty, which was pretty damn good if he did say so himself. Only when he got there, Sam, Cam, Jack, Lorne, Stackouse, and pretty much everyone on staff who'd once been military (and that was almost all of them) was already there, standing around in the bullpen talking and laughing.

"Rodney," John said, "what brings you in early?"

"Nothing," Rodney said, clutching his briefcase like a shield and scooting for his office. "Just wanted to get a jump on that personal defense force field patent." And he closed the door and cut off the sound of their laughter and sighed. Banged his head against the door for good measure, because really.

His next chance to ask John on a date was during a break the next day, when it was just the two of them in the break room, waiting for the coffee to finish percolating. John was staring broodily at his cell phone, checking his email.

Rodney cleared his throat. "Say," he began, and then Lorne appeared, expression grim, and said in a low voice, soldier to commanding officer,

"Sir."

John raised his eyebrows, and Lorne said, "She's here."

John straightened up, shook himself out, and pasted a polite, professional smile on his face. Then he left the break room, coffee mug forgotten. Rodney filled John's mug and went to take it to him, but his door was closed and the little brass sign on it indicated a client conference was in session. Since Lorne wasn't at his desk, Rodney could only assume that Lorne was in there with him, which meant serious business was going on.

Rodney brought the mug of coffee back to his own desk and tried to keep it warm until John got out of his meeting. He kept his door open so he could hear when John's door opened. Naturally, when the door opened, it was a beautiful woman who stepped out first. Lorne slipped past her and returned to his desk. And John, he leaned in and let the woman kiss him on the cheek before she departed. Then John headed for the break room.

Rodney slipped into John's office, left the coffee there for him, and closed his door for the rest of the day.

As confident as he was, he couldn't compete with a woman that beautiful, especially since John was pretty obviously straight.

So he was surprised as all get-out when John appeared in his doorway late Friday afternoon.

"So, after the week I've had, I want to watch crappy movies and get drunk. What do you say?"

Rodney looked up. "What happened? Are you all right?"

John scrubbed a hand through his hair, making it even wilder. "Yeah, even though I'm a tax guy, my ex-wife insisted I draft her pre-nup for her marriage to her new man. Not that neither of them are perfectly competent attorneys themselves. I couldn't turn her down – she could have made our divorce so much worse. I just – seeing her is always rough."

"I can only imagine," Rodney said, but he really couldn't.

That woman, then. The one who'd kissed him. She was his ex-wife.

"So, movies and drinks? How about _Rounders?_ "

"I have a better idea," Rodney said, and he knew Jeannie would scream if she saw what he was about to do. "I've got this old horror movie. It's called _The Cube_."

John's eyes lit up. " _The Cube!_ It's the best. It's all Prime/Not Prime."

Rodney's heart sank. "You've seen it?"

"Not in a long time. Your place or mine?"

"Yours is fine," Rodney said. John's had a nicer entertainment center.

"Excellent. Bring beer."

"Will do," Rodney said. "Who else is coming?"

John paused. "Did you want anyone else to come?"

"Well, no, but –"

"Then no one." John smiled, his first genuine smile in days, and walked away.

Rodney wondered if maybe John wasn't a hundred percent straight. He craned his neck to peer at the paralegal cubes, but Lorne was bent over a calculator and a ledger and seemed to have been oblivious to the entire exchange. Good.

As it turned out, getting to John's place with beer was only half the battle. All of Rodney's confidence deserted him when John answered the door wearing old, faded jeans and a soft, worn t-shirt and nothing else. Bare feet made him look oddly vulnerable and sweet.

Rodney held up the six-pack of beer and DVD. "Ready when you are." His voice cracked, and he blushed.

John didn't seem to notice. "C'mon in. I was going to order a pizza, but I decided to wait, because I wasn't sure what kind you'd want. You like anchovies, don't you?" He led Rodney into the kitchen, which opened to the den and entertainment center. John already had the TV on and the DVD player fired up.

Rodney nodded. How did John know that? Had he had Lorne find out for him?

"I remember, because Daniel gave you all his anchovies the last time we had pizza," John said, "but I don't know what toppings you prefer."

"Anchovies, Canadian bacon, and mushroom," Rodney said.

John smirked at him. "I'm surprised you didn't call it _real_ bacon."

"When in Rome." Rodney shrugged. He set the beer on the counter while John actually rifled through a battered phone book to find the number for the pizza place. Jeannie's advice came back to him. Rodney really liked John. Liked him a lot. He was funny and smart and nice and good-looking (that was just a bonus). They were friends. If they couldn't date, Rodney wanted them to remain friends. So he had to be honest. Time to fake up some confidence. "Listen, John."

John lifted his head. "Yeah?"

"I just – is tonight a date? Because I want it to be a date."

"Yeah," John said. "It's a date. I want it to be a date, too. I just wasn't going to say anything about it at the office. Place is full of gossips, you know." He smiled, and Rodney couldn't help but smile back.

"Good," Rodney said. "Not about the office gossips, I mean. But about this being a date. I – I wasn't sure if you, you know. Swung my way."

"All you had to do was ask."

"What if you said no?"

John leaned across the counter and gazed into his eyes. "I don't know if you've looked in the mirror lately, Meredith Rodney McKay, but you're kind of a catch."

Rodney blinked. But then he smiled. "Thanks."

John leaned in, closed, his eyes, and Rodney's heart pounded. They were going to kiss. They were going to –

"Wait a minute, how do you know my first name?"

John opened his eyes. "I'm a senior associate. We know these things."

"Lorne told you, didn't he?" Rodney narrowed his eyes.

"He also showed me what a sexy little Cupid you were in college," John said, and Rodney groaned.

"Really?"

"I'll show you college pictures of me later if you'd like," John said. "But there's nothing to be embarrassed about. You were hot."

"I needed the money."

"In the meantime, I think you interrupted a very important moment with your logic and keen skills of observation."

"Right." Rodney closed his eyes and leaned in, and John kissed him.


End file.
